thousand nine hundred and twenty-five pounds a voyage.[AJ] The
competition began sharply with the regular running of the Collins
liners, in 1850. Meanwhile during this year and the next additional
contracts were given the Cunard Company for carrying the mails between
Halifax, New York, and Bermuda, on the North American side, in small
steamers, fitted with space for mounting an 18-pounder pivot-gun,
subsidy ten thousand six hundred pounds a year; and for a monthly mail
conveyance between Bermuda and St. Thomas, subsidy four thousand one
hundred pounds a year.[AK] These services united the West Indies with
the United States and Canada.[AK]

In 1851 John Inman entered the trade with his "Inman Line" of
transatlantic screw steamers, which were to carry general cargo and
emigrant passengers, then a steadily increasing business, and to be
independent in all respects of either the Admiralty or the
Post-Office.[AL] The unsubsidized line prospered. The next year (1852)
the Cunard Company increased their liners' horsepower, and the Admiralty
again increased their subsidy. The contract, now made to run for ten
years, provided a subsidy of one hundred and seventy-three thousand
three hundred and forty pounds per fifty-two round trips a year. The
Americans were pressing them closer. Now freight rates were cut, and the
British premier is quoted as advising the Cunard Company to run without
freight if necessary to "beat off the American line."[AM] The increasing
subsidies occasioned a Parliamentary investigation. The committee,
evidently impressed by the gravity of the American competition, reported
that "the cost of the North American service was not excessive," but
they advised that all contracts thereafter "be let at public
bidding."[AN] This recommendation was not heeded. In 1857, upon the plea
that the Americans were about to build larger and more powerful liners,
the Cunard Company asked a five years' extension of the contract of